uice were obtained from 100 lbs. of beet-root,
and gave 5 lbs. of sugar. The method of Schutzenbach, which was
eagerly adopted by the manufacturers, produced from the same
quantity of root 8 lbs. of sugar; but it was attended with more
expense to produce, and the loss of the residue as food for cattle.
The increased expense in this process arises from the larger
quantity of fuel required to evaporate the water; for instead of
merely evaporating the juice, the dry residue is treated with water,
and we require fuel sufficient to evaporate 106 lbs. of fluid
instead of 75 lbs., and the residue is only fit for manure. The
additional 3 lbs. of sugar are purchased at the expense of much
fuel, and the loss of the residue as an article of food.

If the valley of the Rhine possessed mines of diamonds as rich as
those of Golconda, Visiapoor, or the Brazils, they would probably
not be worth the working: at those places the cost of extraction is
28s. to 30s. the carat. With us it amounts to three or four times as
much--to more, in fact, than diamonds are worth in the market. The
sand of the Rhine contains gold; and in the Grand Duchy of Baden
many persons are occupied in gold-washing when wages are low; but as
soon as they rise, this employment ceases. The manufacture of sugar
from beet-root, in the like manner, twelve to fourteen years ago
offered advantages which are now lost: instead, therefore, of
maintaining it at a great sacrifice, it would be more reasonable,
more in accordance with true natural economy, to cultivate other and
more valuable productions, and with them purchase sugar. Not only
would the state be the gainer, but every member of the community.
This argument does not apply, perhaps, to France and Bohemia, where
the prices of fuel and of colonial sugar are very different to those
in Germany.

The manufacture of gas for lighting, from coal, resin, and oils,
stands with us on the same barren ground.

The price of the materials from which gas is manufactured in England
bears a direct proportion to the price of corn: there the cost of
tallow and oil is twice as great as in Germany, but iron and coal
are two-thirds cheaper; and even in England the manufacture of gas
is only advantageous when the other products of the distillation of
coal, the coke, &c., can be sold.

It would certainly be esteemed one of the greatest discoveries of
the age if any one could succeed in condensing coal gas into a
white, dry, solid, o